| Monday, 30 June 2008 Written by Alix Ramsay It was 9.29pm and almost dark. They had been on court for 3hrs 57mins and for two sets and 92 minutes of that struggle, no one would have given Andy Murray a hope but somehow Scotland's finest pulled off a rip-roaring, nerve-snapping 5-7, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Richard Gasquet. Murray is through to the quarter-finals, the first time in his career he has reached the last eight at a Grand Slam. Now he meets Rafael Nadal, but with the whole of the Centre Court crowd roaring themselves hoarse to help him along, anything seems possible. Pity the poor All England Club – they are half way through building the new multi-million pound sliding roof for their famous old court and along comes Murray and whips up his followers to raise that roof and rattle the rafters. When the two men had met last time, it was on Gasquet's home turf in Paris at the Bercy Masters with the victor earning a ticket to the Masters Cup in Shanghai. In the winner-takes-all environment – and playing in front of a vociferous Parisian crowd – Gasquet was as tight as a drum but still just nicked the result. This time the tables were supposed to have been turned – this was meant to be Murray leading his 15,000 supporters in a teatime bout of Andymonium (it is the new Henmania). The pressure was allegedly on the Frenchman as he tried desperately to get through another round and move a step closer to defending the semi-final ranking points he earned last year here. Right, then – over to you, Andy. But as talented as Murray is, not even he can expect to win a place in the quarter-finals without the aid of a first serve. Against the 10th best player in the world, he could not afford to display any sign of weakness, any crack in his defences that Gasquet could pick away at, but he could not buy a first serve for the first two sets. By the end of the first set, he was down to 44 per cent accuracy on the shot and by the time he was a break down in the second set, that had dropped to a miserable 42 per cent. At the other end of the court, Gasquet was serving consistently, clobbering his forehand and laying into his single-handed backhand. He was also chasing forwards to the net whenever he could, stealing the march on Murray. Both of them were hitting winners as if it were going out of fashion but Gasquet was keeping his unforced errors to a minimum while Murray was just having one of those days. He would set up the point perfectly and then go for the final winner only to wince as it flew just over the baseline or clipped the net and fell back. From going toe to toe with Gasquet for the first 11 games, Murray was finally broken as the Frenchman set off on a run of four consecutive games to take the first set and grab the early break in the second. Murray did everything in his power to get the crowd working for him, chasing lost causes and turning them into winners when he was in trouble – and the crowd responded in deafening style – but it was not enough. Gasquet was just too good. Only when Gasquet came to serve for the match did the nerves start to jangle. As his serving arm turned to lead and his brain to cement, he dropped his serve on a double fault. The crowd perked up. It had taken 2hrs 16 minutes for Murray to so much as scratch Gasquet's armour but now, as the Centre Court faithful gasped, screamed and pleaded with the Scot to make a match of it, we had a fight on our hands. Two sets down and 5-5 may not be the best place to plan for victory, but it was the only chance Murray was going to get. With the crowd at his shoulder, he battled, scrapped and strained through eight game points before he finally he held serve – and the louder the Scot's new best friends cheered, the edgier Gasquet became. Murray, meanwhile, had found a new lease of life. He was aggressive on the returns, he was finding the fizz in his ground strokes and, on occasion, he was even landing some first serves. When he took the third set tie-break with a roaring, staggering backhand winner that was played so far out of court that he was almost in the photographers' pit, he brought the house down. Henmania was never like this. With 2hrs 40 mins gone, it was game on. For three sets, Gasquet had barely noticed the 15,000 fans screaming for Murray. He had gone about his business as if he were playing in is own back garden. Then just when he needed his nerve to hold, he could not think for the noise around him and the sight of the big Scot staring at him from across the net. Murray suddenly seemed two feet taller and, in the few seconds it took Gasquet to tighten up and Murray to realise it, the Scot's first serve had returned. The fourth set whistled by in just 25 minutes as Gasquet's resistance crumbled and the noise levels on Centre Court increased with every winner and every game. As Gasquet complained about the fading light, he could do nothing about his fading chances. Broken in the opening game of the fifth set, he could only watch as Murray accelerated away and into the last eight.
| Centre Court - Gentlemen's Singles - 4th Round | |
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